Ordering space in Renaissance times: position and meaning in continuous narration

Abstract

Abstract Continuous narratives, those pictures in which several episodes, each involving the same character or characters, are shown in the same space or setting, are one of the ubiquitous features of Renaissance art, in Italy as well as in Nothern Europe. Despite their prevalence, however, such narratives have long been dismissed and disparaged — above all for their lack of unity — and the interpretive issues they raise have been largely ignored. Only lately has attention been focused, directly and specifically, On the special qualities and appeal of this sort of imagery, as much outside the field of art history as within it, and in recent years continuous narratives have been explored with new interest and sensitivity.2